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ICYMI: Occidental Park Art Installation
Local artist Sophia Wheelwright lights up Occidental Park with "Suspended Eddies"
By Kasee Bailey September 14, 2016
If you haven’t had occasion to meander through Pioneer Square’s Occidental Park lately, then you’ve likely missed its late-summer, early-fall treasure: a show-stopping art installation from local artist Sophia Wheelwright, up now through mid-October.
In an effort to bring more art to Occidental and Westlake parks, the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) is featuring Wheelwright’s “Suspended Eddies,” a 20-by-60-foot project suspended in the Northeast corner of Occidental.
The piece, made of aluminum mesh, changes likeness with day and night; in daylight hours it presents a cloud-like formation within the trees, and at night, LED lights give the installation a blue-green glow.
Of the piece, Wheelwright has said, “I believe what slows us down, even for a few moments, can remind us how extraordinary everyday objects are and shift our experience of place as we notice texture, patterns, light, movement and sound in a more focused way…In a river, an eddy provides an opportunity to rest behind a rock in quieter water and notice the details before rejoining the chaos of the current. With this piece, I hope to provide an ‘eddy’ for people in a bustling urban space.”